


Battlestuck: Afterlife [ON HIATUS]

by Unofficial_EridanTrashBin



Category: Battle Royale, Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Battlestuck, Battlestuck - Freeform, Ensemble Cast, Gen, Homestuck x Battle Royale Crossover/AU, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-01-13 10:46:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 14,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1223443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unofficial_EridanTrashBin/pseuds/Unofficial_EridanTrashBin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Have you ever wondered what happens to the kids that die in Battlestuck?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Arrival

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bananna_h](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananna_h/gifts), [krasmataz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/krasmataz/gifts), [PunchRockgroin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunchRockgroin/gifts), [spacewombat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacewombat/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Battlestuck](https://archiveofourown.org/works/419286) by [bananna_h](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bananna_h/pseuds/bananna_h), [krasmataz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/krasmataz/pseuds/krasmataz), [PunchRockgroin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunchRockgroin/pseuds/PunchRockgroin), [spacewombat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacewombat/pseuds/spacewombat). 



> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.
> 
> I also want to dedicate my story to the authors and artists that made Battlestuck for making the incredible fanfiction that kickstarted my own.

**Be Cody Nak.**

You are Cody Nak, and you don't know what just happened. Apparently, you were knocked out by something and you sorta feel lightheaded. Everything is a blur when you try to wake up, but you don't have the strength to do it. Eventually, you do wake up, and the first thing you hear is nothing but the sound of your voice.

"Ugh," you say to yourself, "What just happened?" 

The last thing you could remember was being in a classroom, yelling at a man, calling him a "fucking sicko" if you recall correctly, and then he pulled out a gun and fired it toward you. You blacked out suddenly, and woke up here in a white empty plane. You stand up and start to look around this void of nothingness, where there is nothing there. Literally nothing. All around you, you see an area of emptiness.  You're not even sure if you're standing on a floor. Or even **anything** , perhaps.

"What is this? Where the hell am I?" you ask yourself. Just then, you hear a disembodied voice.

"Hello Cody Nak," the voice speaks to you as it echoes throughout this vacuum you're in.

"What the-? Who are you?" you ask. You presume that you're just hearing things. But then, a light-skinned man wearing an all-white outfit appears next to you, which reveals himself to be the voice that was talking to you.

"I'm glad you asked," the man answers you. "I am an angel, Mr. Nak. I am referred to by many names. But you can call me Michael." The first time you see Michael, he starts smiling at you. He seems rather kind and uplifting.

"Well, hello then, Michael," you reply awkwardly. "You can call me Cody, if you want."

"Well hello to you too then, Cody."

"Now, do you know what this place is? Are we just in a vacuum of nothingness?"

"You are in the afterlife, young man," Michael answered.  You seemed to be surprised at first, but you ask him again to try and disprove your suspicions 

"Wait, I'm dead?" you inquired. "As in _dead_ dead?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Michael replied as his smile starts turning into a solemn frown. "You were shot by a rather pale-looking man after  you did something that he claimed that was of 'such rudeness and vulgarity.' And then, he pulled out a firearm and killed you with it. So yes, Mr. Nak. You **are** _dead_ dead."

"No," you blurt out, "No, this has to- This must me a dream. I must be sleeping in the bus with the rest of the class, and I'm gonna wake up soon." Then a mirror materializes on Michael's hands and shows you of your reflection. In your reflection, your eyes are completely devoid of anything but the color white As you start to touch your face, it feels cold. You can't believe it. You are in complete disbelief right now. You drop to the floor and kneel down, feeling rage as Michael continued.

"There was a whole group of adolescents around you when you were killed."

"They were..." you stress out. "They were my classmates. Some of them were my friends! That Doctor Scratch fucker just shot me right in front of their damn faces! Oh this is just fucking perfect! I just had to die right fucking now, had it?!"

"Cody!" Michael interjected, "Please calm down! There is nothing you can do about this!" Regardless of what Michael is saying to you, you can't still calm down. However, after a few minutes, you do eventually calm down and start to speak with Michael again.

"Michael, I'm sorry for my sudden outburst," you say to the angel. "Is there... Is there a way out of this?"

"I'm sorry, Cody, but it doesn't work that way," Michael responded "Once a person dies, their soul exits out their physical body, and it can't be accessible from here on in." And then you start to tear up and start crying.

"No!" you yell out, "No! No! Please God no! This can't be happening!" As you continue crying, Michael tries to calm you down.

"I'm sorry, Cody," Michael said to the heartbroken boy, "Please calm down again. There is nothing you can do about this."

"I know, Michael," you say to the angel as you try to calm down.

"But hear me out, Cody," Michael stated, "Living in the afterlife is not as bad as it may seem."

"Really?"

"Yes it is. Let me show you what the afterlife is." Just then, the void of nothingness around you and Michael starts turning into a setting being made up of places from your past memories ranging from a hospital room during your birth, the outside of Skaia Junior High during the first day of school, the hallway where you met your girlfriend for the first time, and your bedroom just this morning among other things. 

"Where are we now?" you ask.

"This is what the afterlife looks like, Cody," Michael replies. "As you can see, this afterlife is made up of memories from any deceased soul residing here. There are multiple afterlives made for a certain pool of people, and you, Cody, are the first inhabitant of this new afterlife. You are able to continue 'living,' so to speak, because your soul is still intact when you died. Soon, your classmates will join you here. As far as I'm aware, your classmates are participating in the SBURB Program, where they are basically playing in a game of death right now." To much of your surprise, what Michael said is disturbingly exact to what Doctor Scratch said to you and the rest of your class before he shot you.

"Wait a minute... How do you know about this?" you inquire Michael.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Michael replied, "What I am about to explain may be linked to what your classmates are partaking in right now."

"What is it?" Just then a bubble materializes right in front of them. "Here in the afterlife, you have the ability to watch any current event on Earth," Michael continued as the bubble starts to highlight on a random event in the Program, "As you can see here, it looks like one of your fellow classmates is surrounded by two other students."

"Hey I know that kid," you chime in, "That's Stephen Liche. And he looks scared. I think that they're trying to form an alliance with those two kids he's speaking to."

"Well that looks like a good thing," Michael added, "And I think you have gotten the concept of the afterlife well, I hope?"

"You know what, Michael," you reply, "I think I can enjoy myself here in the afterlife."

"That's good to know, Cody. Well, I cannot stay here for long. I have to leave now."

"What for?"

"It's something rather urgent. Something I can't tell you, even if I wanted to."

"Oh, that's OK, Michael. Thanks you anyway."

"You're welcome, Cody. Farewell, my friend" 

"Farewell to you too, Michael!"

And with that, Michael quickly departs as he disappears into the horizon. 


	2. Cody Meets Stephen

**Cody: Continue watching over the bubble.**

After Michael departs, you continue watching over the bubble. Your surrounding start to converge to your neighborhood as you see Stephen talking with those two kids, whose names, if you recall correctly, are Equius and Nepeta. Then suddenly, Nepeta starts charging at Stephen. You give out a "Huh?" as you watch. Your initial thoughts of them forming an alliance have been quickly disproved.

"What is she doing?" you ask yourself. As you see Stephen frantically running away from her, Equius suddenly tackles him to the ground. 

"Whoa!" you exclaim. "Damn, how can a guy of his build could run that fast?!" Equius then holds Stephen down and Nepeta strikes her claws to his neck, instantly killing him. You are then left surprised, speechless, shocked and appalled as you witness Stephen getting killed.

"Holy shit!" you yell out loud to yourself after a few seconds of silence. "I can't believe they did that!" As you're still shocked over what you have witnessed, a giant beam of light suddenly appears many yards away from you. You curiously head to the beam of light to investigate. As it quickly fades away, you start seeing a person, lying down and apparently knocked out, appear from the beam.

"Who is that?" you ask yourself. As you get closer to it, you are able to easily identify who it. To much of your surprise, the person turns out to be Stephen Liche! That same Stephen that you saw getting killed by Equius and Nepeta. You approach Stephen as he lies there knocked out, reminiscent of yourself when you arrived here.

"Hey, Stephen," you say to the unconscious Stephen, "You alright?"

****

**Be Stephen Liche.**

You are now Stephen Liche, and you have been awoken by a faint voice. Your vision is blurry, your body is sore, and your neck hurts as hell as you open your eyes.

"Ugh, what the hell?" you ask yourself, "Oh, my neck hurts. What just happened?" As your eyes clear up, you start to see the face of what it looks like one of your classmates. If you recall correctly, that classmate is Cody Nak.

"Hey you alright?" Cody asks you.

"Yeah, I think so," you respond to him, "I have a huge pain in the front of my neck, but I'm fine. Hey wait. You're that Cody Nak guy, right?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"I guess I haven't properly introduced myself to you yet. Name's Stephen. Stephen Liche" You struggle to get up because of how sore your body is, but Cody is nice enough to help you up. "Is he a ghost?" you think to yourself as you look at Cody's pupil-less eyes. You look around and wonder where you are. It looks like you're in a neighborhood within Psidon City. It's a nice and clean neighborhood. Even better than your own neighborhood located right in the outskirts of town.

"So where the hell are we?" you inquire to Cody. 

"Well, it's hard to explain..." Cody replies, "But before I can explain, I have to ask you this: What was the last thing you could remember before this?"

"Well, I was just in a forest with my gun, then two kids just like took my gun and I ran off." As you continue describing your memory, the surroundings start converging into a forest. You seem confused at first, but you continue, anyway.

"Then like, I was caught by two other kids and then I got tackled by one of them, and then..." Just as you are still remembering, blood then starts to drip from your neck. When you start to notice it, you feel three holes in your neck. You give out a quiet "Oh shit." as it happens.

"So like, I'm dead now?" you ask in surprise.

"Yep," Cody replies, "I'm also dead too." Confused, you ask him another question to get some answers.

"So we are in an afterlife?" you ask Cody.

"Yes! We are in _the_ afterlife," Cody responds, "Look, I can already tell you're confused about you dying, but why don't we walk around, if you don't mind."

"Yeah, sure," you respond. You start to follow Cody and you begin to talk.

"So what do we do here in the afterlife?" you ask.

"I don't know..." Cody says, "I wasn't given any instructions on what I can do once I arrived here. There was an angel named Michael that told me the basics of the afterlife; he told me that it's made up of memories of its current inhabitants, like you and me. You know how the surroundings around us started to converge when you remembered how you died?"

"Well, yes..."

"Well that's an example of how it works. We can travel into any event in our combined memories, like from our births to the first day of school. Hell, even to the moments where either of us were killed!"

"Well that's... That's interesting."

"Yes. But the way I see it, once more of our classmates get killed, this place will expand with their memories, and we can explore in the wonders of the afterlife!" As Cody finishes speaking, you are left in amazement. You think of the potential of what you can do here. You can actually start an active social life with the people in your class, which was something you couldn't do when you were alive. You, unfortunately, didn't have that because everyone in your class thought you were just a creep, when in reality, you just had poor social skills and a low self-esteem. It's kinda depressing, really. But just then, a beam of light appears out of nowhere just a few yards away from you. You and Cody cover your eyes so that the both of you won't be blinded by the light. Cody then sees a person appear of the light. 

"Oh who died now?" Cody asks you.

"I don't know," you reply, "Why don't we see?"

"Yeah, let's go!" Cody said back to you as you both ran to the scene to investigate.

"Does this happen every time one of our classmates gets killed?" you ask, "I presume that's how I got here, is it?"

"I guess so," Cody replies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	3. Two More Arrivals

**Stephen: Investigate.**

You and Cody head to the beam of light that you presume that has a person inside of it. The beam quickly fades away as you both get closer. As it does, the person that was in it is more identifiable, and to much of your surprise, that person turns out to be Olga Grey, easily the biggest girl in your class.

"Oh shit!" you proclaim loudly, "That's Olga!" You look at Cody, who is equally as surprised as you.

"So the Ogre has been slain," Cody trembled in fear, "Oh man. I don't want to be the one to get fucked up by her. I mean look at her! She has muscles that's even bigger than Equius'. She could probably crush our necks in just one touch and kill us just like that, even though we're already dead!"

"Hey, don't say that!" you interject, "She might wake up right now from hearing on what you said about her and what you said will come true."

"Oh shit! You're right," Cody says, "I think we should just back away from her. Just to be safe."

"Agreed," you reply in fear, "Let the Ogre wake up here on her own terms." You and Cody slowly back away from the unconscious Olga and walk away.

"Ugh, man I need to sit down," you say.

"Well, let's go to my house," Cody replies. The surroundings then start to converge into a recent memory of Cody's living room and you and Cody sit on his couch. 

"You have a nice house, Cody," you say to him.

"Well, thank you," Cody says, "I got that a lot when I was alive."

**Cody: Start having memories of your house.**

You then start to remember your memories of this house.

> _You were just a newborn when you and your family moved in. It was a big house. It was two stories and it had plenty of rooms and a big backyard, despite the fact that you were an only child in your family. You've had some good memories in that house. Ranging from your first steps, to various birthday parties and sleepovers, even to your first date with Casey._

Practically, your home is your life. Or it was, unfortunately. It seems tragic that you've died so young, and that the rest of your class will join you in the same fate. But you always think to yourself "Life finds its way." Or some other philosophical shit like that.

* * *

**Stephen: Wonder what to do next.**

A few minutes have passed, and you have no idea what to do next.

"So now what?" you ask Cody after a moment of silence, "What do you think we should do now?"

"I don't know," Cody replies, "I honestly don't know _what_  we should do."

"I wonder what the hell the our other classmates are doing," you ask. Just then, you see a small bubble materialize just to the right of you. 

"The hell is that?" you ask to Cody in a rather surprised tone.

"Oh that," Cody said, "That bubble has the ability to let us view any current event in the world. It only pops up every time you think about what's going on in the world. That means we can watch over any of our classmates that are still alive." Hearing him explaining what that bubble is _does_ seem to attract your attention.

"That's actually kinda cool," you say. As you and Cody approach the bubble, you see two of your classmates talking to each other. 

"I wonder what's going on there?" Cody asks. "Hey, isn't that class president Feferi Peixes?"

"That is. It looks like he's talking to that Eridan Ampora guy."

"Isn't he the guy with the purple streak on his hair and plays for the school's soccer team?"

"Yes to both of those questions."

"Why the hell does he have that on his hair?"

"How should I know? I never asked him when I was still alive!"

You two then see Feferi walk away from Eridan. You give out a quiet "The hell?" as you see this.

"Where's she going?" Cody asks. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, you witness Eridan gun down Feferi.

"Oh shit!" you and Cody exclaim. You couldn't believe your eyes. The class president has been gunned down right before your eyes.

"Oh, my God!" Cody exclaims.

"I can't believe he did that!" you blurt out. "Eridan Ampora had just gunned down Feferi Peixes, and we just saw it happen!"

"I know!" Cody said.

"Oh, man," you say, "I need to step outside real quick." You walk away from the bubble and step outside of Cody's house as the bubble displays Eridan leaving the scene. You sit down on the curb, and then, after a few minutes have passed, you then see a person limping from the distance.

"Huh?" you ask yourself. And then you notice the person collapse to the ground.

"Hey Cody, come out here!" you yell, "I think Feferi Peixes has just arrived in the afterlife!"

"What?!" Cody hastily says as he rushes outside.

"Follow me!" you say as you run to the body. When you and Cody get closer, you confirm that it is Feferi Peixes. It appears she is unconscious and you and Cody start to carry her.

"Let's carry her to a bed," you say as you and Cody carry her into the house. And then you drop Feferi on Cody's bed.

"Damn. That was... That was interesting," you say.

"I'll say," Cody says, "What happened to her?"

"Well, I was outside trying to clear my mind for a few minutes, then I saw her limping in the distance and collapse to the ground."

"Do you think she's gonna be OK?"

"Shit, I don't know. She just arrived in the afterlife a short time after we saw her get killed. Give her some time to rest."

"Yeah sure." You and Cody then leave his room so that Feferi can rest peacefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	4. Skipping Ahead A Bit...

****

**Be someone else somewhere in the future.**

You are now Sollux Captor and everything hurts. The only two girls in your life, Aradia Megido and Feferi Peixes, are dead and you have no reason to live anymore. You are on the roof of an abandoned hospital and you decide to end your life. Your friend, Karkat Vantas, is trying to stop you from what you're doing, but you refuse to listen to him. You jump from the roof, and when you land on the ground seconds later, you see your life flash before your eyes and you black out.

* * *

You wake up a few minutes later, sleeping on the asphalt of a road and feeling pain on nearly your entire body. It feels like you're arms and legs have been twisted into angles your limbs can't possibly do. It feels like your bones have been crushed and broken beyond repair. And your right eye feels like it has been pulled out of your eye socket; it's even painful just imagining it. Despite this, you are still able to get up and stand. You start to walk and look around at your surroundings and wonder where you are. Since you are what you _think_ is the afterlife, after all, you _did_ jump off a fucking building just to kill yourself, you wonder why you're on a neighborhood street.

As you're walking around this neighborhood, it seems that you are somewhere near your school because you easily recognize this neighborhood. Damn near all of the houses are easily distinguishable since you see them every day you walk to school with Aradia. You had very good memories with her before her accident. You start to remember the first time you met.

> _It was a warm autumn day. You were just a little kid sitting on the swing sets in a school playground alone, feeling grouchy and bitter, when a girl with long hair walked up to you and introduced herself. Her name was Aradia. Aradia Megido. You introduced yourself to Aradia by saying your name. However, due to your lisp, you said your name like "Thollux." Every time you talked with that lisp, you feel embarrassed and a little angry due to the fact you can't control it. However, this time, Aradia just giggled and said that it was cute. You seemed ecstatic that Aradia was the first person you've met that_ didn't  _made fun of your lisp. You started to like her as a friend, and it stuck. Ever since that day, you and Aradia have been best friends. Almost as close as lovers, if you will. But then she had her accident. What happened, if you recall, is that one of the girls in your class pushed Aradia down the school's stairs, and ever since, she hasn't been the same person. She completely changed from her upbeat and bubbly personality to a quiet and gloom demeanor. As if she was like a ghost._

The surroundings then start to converge into the playground from that memory.

"Huh?" you ask yourself, "The hell's going on?" In spite of this unusual event, you start having memories of Feferi.

> _While Aradia was hospitalized, you moved your attention to another girl, Feferi Peixes. Feferi was the class president, and she had tender feelings for you. Possibly on the same level as Aradia's. You and Feferi met in middle school after she saw you get harassed by a group of bullies that were making fun of your lisp. Because of her high notoriety in the school, Feferi scared off the the bullies at ease. Without her even getting physical. When you introduced Feferi to Aradia, they both had an easy friendship between each other. Hell, you even dated both of those girls. You and Feferi mostly spend a great deal of time together discussing feelings, among other things. With that, some say that your relationship with Feferi is a bit boring, but you'll always say that your relationship is_ **beyond** _that. She understands your feelings and you understand hers. She was always there for you and vice versa. You could even say that she's your "it girl" ; and the same thing goes with Aradia._

Strictly speaking, Aradia and Feferi were your world to you. Your _only_ world to you, if you will. They were the only people that you cared about. And when you found out that they were killed, you were both pissed off and depressed that the only two people that you care about were gone for good. So, out of the desperation and anger you felt, you decided to end your life because you couldn't handle their deaths that well.

You continue walking, seemingly accepting your death now as you head back to the road you were walking on. You start to wonder what the hell's going on with Karkat now. But just then, a bubble materializes right in front of you, and it just happens to be showing Karkat. You start to see the bubble. Karkat looks scared and traumatized. All because he witnessed your suicide. You give out a depressed sigh as you watch him.

"Oh, Kay-Kay," you say solemnly, "I'm sorry and I really mean it. I know you can't hear me through this thing, but hear me out, OK? When and if you get killed off in this accursed game, I hope you can find it in my heart that you'll forgive me." You start to walk away as your eyes start tearing up. 

You then start seeing a group of people seemingly chatting and socializing from the distance. You head there to investigate, and as you're getting closer, you start to hear familiar voices from the group. You give out a short "Hey." to the group to get there attention. When they all turn their heads to you, one of them says to you "So, another one bites the dust, huh?"

"Eh, yeah I guess," you reply. "My name is Sollux Captor, by the way." Two girls from the group gasp in surprise as you say your name.

"Sollux?!" they yell out in unison. Looking closely at the two, the two girls happen to be Aradia and Feferi! You as well give out a gasp of surprise. Giving out a surprised look in your face, you slowly approach Aradia and Feferi and begin to hug them as tight as you can.

"You're both here," you say as your eyes start to water up, "I'm sorry. I'll never leave both of you."

"It's OK, Sollux," Aradia stated.

"We both forgive you," Feferi added.

You then start crying while Aradia and Feferi comfort you. All that you care about right now is that you have been reunited with the two people that you care about so much. And in all honesty, it feels so good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	5. At The Campfire...

**Sollux: Be someone else.**

You are now Cody Nak, and you are now witnessing a very emotional reunion between your classmates. It's kind of touching, really. With that Sollux kid, coming from what Aradia Megido and Feferi Peixes said to him, coming out of nowhere,  you never thought you'd have any more company in your little circle you've formed between you and the fallen members of your class.

All of you weren't doing anything interesting before Sollux showed up, really. All you and the group really did was only talk about each other's back stories and what you all wanted to be when you grow up. In spite of how cliche the latter already is, the things you heard from your fellow classmates were actually pretty interesting. For example, your new friend Stephen wanted to be a Information Technician after high school; you never knew he had a thing with computers. And from what you've heard at school, Sollux also was a major tech and computer guy, so maybe Stephen and Sollux could have made a good tech pair when they were alive.

Another thing that happened is that you learned that Olga Grey and Naga Basile are not as bad as the seem. First, you learned in the past that Olga wasn't a full-on bully. Because of her physical appearance, Olga was bullied for much her life until she eventually struck back. And when she found she was usually much stronger and crueler than her aggressors, _she_ became the bully. Naga was an orphan after her mother died in the military and her father died of a degenerative disorder. She has bounced around the orphanage system her whole life, which has left her bitter and angry at the world around her.

After hearing of their back stories, you kinda felt pity on them, despite the fact that Olga was basically like a ogre that could kill anyone in your class in one blow and the fact that Naga was just a straight-up bitch. They could have been very nice people to be friends, hell, even just plain acquaintances with. But sadly because of their past actions, they wasted an opportunity like that.

You then start hearing a voice coming from behind you.

"Cody!" the voice says joyfully. The voice sounds rather familiar.

"Is that who I think it is?" you ask happily. As you turn your head, the voice is what you think it is: it's Michael, the same Michael that introduced you to the afterlife. And now he has returned, possibly to check on you. 

"Yes it is, Mr Nak!" Michael answers. You move away from your group to greet Michael. You give out a handshake that turned into a hug to greet him on his return.

"Good to see you, Michael!" you say.

"Same here, Mr. Nak," Michael says, "So Cody, how's it been? How's the afterlife going for you?"

"Terrific, Michael! I've been making a lot of new friends since more of my classmates have arriving here."

"That's great, Cody."

"So, like, Michael. How is it going with you and what the heck is happening in the game now?"

"Well, Cody. What's happening with me is still confidential. All that I can tell you is that I'm gonna be staying here with you and the rest of your classmates to watch you all over. Just for a while."

"Oh, well, OK, then."

"But as for the game, at least two of your classmates are now dead."

"Which ones?"

"Shelby Cetus and Casey Salamancer." As you hear Michael utter out the last name, you are left in complete surprise.

"Wait... Isn't Casey your girlfriend?" Michael asks you. You give out a nod while you are left speechless. Just then, Stephen comes in from behind you and starts to talk to you.

"Uh Cody, are you OK?" Stephen asks, "And who is this man?" You immediately go out of your state of shock to answer your friend. 

"Oh, yeah. I'm OK," you say. "Now, what else did you say?"

"Who is the guy that you're talking to?" Stephen questions.

"My name is Michael," he answered, "I am an angel sent to watch over you kids."

"Oh, that's sound cool." Stephen says. As you see Stephen and Michael starting up a conversation between them, you can't keep your mind off of Casey. After learning of her death, you now realize that you can see her again! You now have the urge to look for her. And fast! For all you know, she might still be scared and traumatized from seeing your death or most likely being in the game of death she and the rest of your class have been put upon. Finding her could relieve her of her trauma.

"Excuse me, guys," you say to Stephen and Michael, "I'm gonna take a walk. I'll be back soon."

"Well, what should we all do?" Stephen asks in slight confusion.

"Maybe you can introduce Michael to the others. If that's OK with you, Michael?" you inquire.

"That's completely fine with me," Michael responds, "I am eager to meet the other kids."

"Right, right," you say, "Well, I gotta go."

"Yeah, bye Cody," Stephen and Michael say in unison. With that, your quest to find Casey begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	6. Casey

****

**Be Casey Salamancer.**

You are now Casey Salamancer. And you have no idea what happened to you. It seems that you apparently fell asleep and waking up, everything is blurry and you feel weak and sore. Especially around your neck. It hurts really bad.

"What just happened?" you ask yourself as you get up from the ground. "Where am I?" When you stand up, you look around and it appears that you're in a park. "How did I get here?" you think to yourself. This park seems rather familiar. As it turns out, this is the same park where you met one of your best friends, Rose Lalonde.

> _You were 5 years old. It was a sunny summer afternoon in Psidon City. You were in the park having fun in the playground. You always played in the playground every time you went to the park. In your view, it was a good way to make friends. However, on that day, you saw a short-haired blonde girl there just roaming around alone. You approached her as an attempt to be friendly._
> 
> _"Hi!" you said to the girl. "My name is Casey. Casey Salamancer."_
> 
> _"My name is Rose Lalonde," she said in response._
> 
> _"Wanna be friends?" you ask her._
> 
> _"Sure," Rose responds._
> 
> _After introducing yourselves, you and Rose started to have a fun time together for the rest of that day. And it stuck: you and Rose Lalonde were now friends._ _And when the first day of school came, you became more close to Rose since you and her had the same classes. She was always there for you. And you were always there for her. It was always like this for as long as you could remember._

After reminiscing about that memory, you try to remember what happened to you before waking up here. As your surroundings start to change into the a forest, the last thing you remember is being held hostage by one of your classmates, Spencer Slick, and saying that he'll kill you. You tried to plead to Spencer not to kill you, but he didn't care. He just went in and just slit your throat and let you go. You then slowly start to black out and you woke up here. It then dawns to you that you are now dead. And that Spencer Slick is the man responsible for it!

Spencer is gonna pay for this. He and his group of friends, and especially Simone Frost since she was with them, will not get away with killing you. You are in all honesty furious right now. Never in your entire life have you been this angry at something. A big contradiction to your happy and positive demeanor you always display. However, as you're about to burst with rage, you manage to calm yourself down. But the next time you'll see Spencer and his group, they **will**  pay!

After that, you start to walk around and you see a young girl kneeling as she is hurt in the distance. You start to run toward her and as you get closer to her, the girl turns out to be one of your classmates, Shelby Cetus. Even though she is one of the shyest people in your class, you recognize her easily because you had a habit to easily recognize faces, which made you one of the most popular kids in you class. Shelby looks broken up and crying as you approach her.

"Shelby Cetus?" you ask her. "Are you OK?" 

"Oh. Hi Casey," she responds tearfully. Due to your popularity in the school, Shelby easily recognizes you, nevertheless.

"Hey. What's wrong?" you ask Shelby as a mean to calm her down. "Why are you crying?"

"It's not fair. Everything's not fair!"

"What? What is it?"

"Why does have to be like this?! Why did I have to die?! Why like this?!" 

"Oh, Shelby," you say, "It's gonna be OK. Here, I think you need a hug." You hug her and Shelby calms down after a few minutes.

"There. Better?" you ask.

"Yes," Shelby says with a smile in her face, "Thank you, Casey."

"You're welcome," you reply, "Anything I could do for a fellow classmate. You have to be lucky enough to have someone like me right here next to you right now. And thank goodness that you weren't found by someone potentially dangerous."

"I guess," Shelby says, "So what are we gonna do now, Casey?"

"Well since we are in like Heaven or some form of the afterlife, I think that we'll try to find our other deceased classmates. We'll need some explanation on what happened to us and maybe we'll know what's going on with our classmates that are still alive."

"OK then. Let's go!" an ecstatic Shelby says. "Oh this is gonna be like many of the books I have read. I hope we can find some interesting things in our journey!"

"Heh. Maybe we could," you respond. "You must read a lot of books to be excited for an adventure like this."

"Oh you have no idea," Shelby says. 

And with that, you and Shelby's journey begins. 

* * *

**Later...**

You don't know how long you and Shelby have been walking during this journey since there is practically no time here in the afterlife. However, the both of you don't feel tired to a point where you want to rest yet.

During your trek, you and Shelby found a lot of interesting things about each other and sharing out each of your favorite memories. For example, you learned that Shelby has a hidden talent in being fluent in 5 languages. Not bad for a kid in your class. "Reading all those books must have payed off," you thought to yourself. And you revealed to Shelby that you had a nickname when you were a little kid. Your nickname was "Viceroy Bubbles Von Salamancer." It was a rather silly nickname Rose made up when you and her had a play date once. And as you got older, it was still silly. Good times.

As you and Shelby are still walking, Shelby notices something in the distance.

"Casey, look!" Shelby says. You then look closely to the same direction Shelby is facing. What you're seeing a group of people gathered around in some sort of a campfire. 

"Are those the others?" you ask.

"I think so," Shelby replies. You and Shelby run to them and as you get closer,  you give out a "Hello" to get the attention of the group. They all turn their heads to you and Shelby and one of them says "So, two more have suffered at the hands of the Program."

"Yep," you say.

"So what are your names?" another one says.

"Casey Salamancer," you say, "And this is Shelby Cetus." 

"Well, welcome to the afterlife Casey and Shelby," yet another one from the group says.

Using your natural ability of recognizing faces, you see who's here. The first person you see is Male Student Number 3 Sollux Captor talking to Female Student 5 Aradia Megido while Female Student Number 7 Feferi Peixes lies down on Sollux's lap. Next, you see Male Student Number 9 Stephen Liche talking to a man that is unfamiliar to you wearing an all-white outfit. You presume that man is some sort of an angel. And lastly, you see Female Students Numbers 14 and 9, Olga Grey and Naga Basile chatting. The only person you don't see is your boyfriend Cody Nak. "Where in the world is he?" you think to yourself. "He should be here..."

"Something wrong, Casey?" Shelby asks you.

"Oh nothing's wrong, Shelby," you say. "Why don't we sit down?"

"OK," Shelby says as you and her sit down. You start to hear a boy calling out from behind you.

"Hey guys I'm back!" the boy says. The voice sounds rather familiar to you. You look behind and see who it is.

"Is that who I think it is?" you whisper to yourself. As the boy comes closer, he becomes more identifiable, and as it turns out, the boy  _is_ who you think it is. 

"Cody?!" you exclaim.

"Casey?" Cody yells out. You then stand up and start to run toward him and you start to hug him and he starts hugging you. You don't even care how tight you're hugging Cody right now.

"You're here," Cody whispers to you, "I'm sorry, Casey. I'll never leave you again."

"It's OK," you reply tearfully. "All that matters is that I'm here with you right now."

You and Cody start to cry, but that doesn't even matter right now. You are back together again with your boyfriend Cody, and it feels so good right now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lackluster writing for the flashback. I had a bit of writer's block while writing that part of this chapter.  
> Also, If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	7. A Problem With Eridan (Mini-Chapter)

**Be Feferi Peixes.**

You are now Feferi Peixes and you have now awoken from a quick nap.

As you are waking up, you witness a second emotional reunion between your deceased classmates, the first being between you and two of your good friends, Sollux along with Aradia. But in the midst of this, you are now suddenly worried. Worried about Eridan Ampora. The same Eridan that had gunned you down. You don't even know what's happening with him at this moment. You have a sort of internal instinct that Eridan never even wanted to kill you in the first place. The Program has deteriorated his mindset to a point where he would kill anything, not having a care in the world about what he's doing. All he wanted was to survive this cursed game and escape. And with you, no less. But when he said that the only way for that to happen is to kill the rest of your classmates, you rejected his offer and just basically shamed him. But he snapped; Eridan just lost it when you did that to him. He just shot you down with no regrets.

But the problem is that when he'll eventually arrive here in the afterlife. You don't know what you'll say to him or how you'll approach him. You are completely uncertain on whether you should forgive him or not. 

"Hey Feferi," Aradia says to you, "Is something wrong?"

"Oh, I don't know, Aradia," you respond, "I just cannot stop worrying about Eridan."

"Why?"

"Well I don't know if I want to forgive him or not, partly because he was the one that killed me. But at the same time, I wonder if he's OK. I don't even know if he's now traumatized or not from killing me." Just then, Cody Nak, the guy you just saw having an emotional reunion with another girl in your class, comes and joins in your conversation. 

"Hey Feferi, what's going on?" Cody asks.

"Oh, she's just worried about one of the guys in our class," Aradia answers back. 

"Which one?" Cody asks. "is it one that is still alive or something?"

"Eridan. Eridan Ampora," you answer as Cody gives out a surprised look, "I don't know if I could forgive him."

"Well I'm no doctor or therapist, but I think I could help you out," Cody says, "think about your current situation like this: I know _he_ was the guy that killed you, but I think that he didn't want to do it in the first place. Hell, no one else in our class wanted to kill do it either. But anyway, I believe that his intent to kill is like under 'forced circumstances' or something like that. Also, I think that something made his anger even bigger before killing you, and he wanted to vent out his anger by doing just that."

"Well..." you say rather timidly, "I actually rather disappointed him. He said that he wanted to escape with me, and the only way to do that is to kill everyone. Of course, I refused his offer and that's when he basically snapped and killed me..."

"Oh..." Cody responds in shock, "That make perfect sense, Feferi."

"I get where you're coming from, Feferi," Aradia says, "But does it change your mind on forgiving Eridan?" 

"Yeah, think about it," Cody says, "I wouldn't think that Eridan would win in this game anyway, but when and if he gets killed off and you encounter him and he tries to apologize, would you accept it, no matter what he did?" Taking Cody's question into consideration, it takes some time to answer his question. 

"I'll try," you finally say.

"Well I'm glad to hear that, Feferi," Cody responds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	8. [ALPHA SESSION] One Year Ago

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we shift our attention to the Alpha Session.

**Be someone else one year earlier.**

The year is 2011. You are Dirk Strider and everything hurts. Literally, your whole body is in an infinite pain and it feels like it won't wear off soon.

The last thing you could remember is fighting with someone named Caliborn and you got quickly knocked down by him. Then the next thing you know, you were being sawed in half by him, and he wouldn't even stop no matter what you said to him. You couldn't feel anything but pure, agonizing pain from there. And then, you blacked out and that was it.

Everything feels disoriented when you try to wake up. You hear a buzzing noise in your head that slowly turns into faint voices.

"Hey, you OK?" you hear.

"No!" you scream out as you suddenly sit up and back away covering your eyes, "No please! Make it stop! Make it stop! Please!"

"Whoa, Dirk!" you hear, "Calm down! Please calm down!" You then start to cry because you seem to be pretty traumatized right now when you are being patted in the face and being shushed at the same time. Whoever is doing this must be calming you down.

"Shh. There there. It's OK, it's OK," you hear. After a few minutes of that, you then slowly open your eyes, take off your glasses and wipe the tears off your face. The very first thing you see is two people: one of your classmates, Rufioh Bascoh and a light-skinned man wearing an all-white outfit. You really don't know Rufioh that well, and you don't like or hate the guy either; the only way you know him is that he's in the same club as you in your school. You notice that Rufioh's eyes are all-white. "Is he a ghost?" you think to yourself. And as for the other guy, he seems to be some sort of an angel. His eyes aren't all white like he's dead. But he can't be some sort of a living human being. 

"Are you OK now?" Rufioh asks you.

"I am now," you reply. 

"Well I'm glad to hear that," the white-suited man says to you. He then gives out his hand to help you up.

"Thank you," you say as you start shaking the man's hand, "What's your name, sir?"

"My name is Michael," the man says, "And you must be Dirk Strider, yes?"

"Yeah," you answer as you and Michael stop shaking hands. 

"Well, Mr. Strider. Welcome to the afterlife," Michael says. You are not the least-bit surprised by this revelation. _Of course_ you are in the afterlife. After all, you were fucking  **sawed in half by a sword to a point where your body was damaged beyond repair.** There was no way that you, nor anyone else in that matter, could survive something as gruesome as _that_. 

As you look around the afterlife, it looks really diverse than you imagined. You seem to be  _slightly_  confused, so you go to Michael to ask him some questions.

"So, uhh... Michael," you say.

"Yes, Mr. Strider?" Michael responds.

"How does this thing work out? Like this whole afterlife thing and all that," you ask.

"Well, Mr. Strider," Michael says, "Let me be your guide in the many wonders of the afterlife."

"Oh, OK then."

* * *

After a few minutes of Michael explaining enough info to you, and to your classmate Rufioh as well since he was right there with Michael when you arrived and he basically started following you guys since he had nothing else to do, you pretty much get the basic concept of the afterlife. One of the interesting things you learned about the afterlife is the fact that you could watch over any current event on Earth through many bubbles that appear here.

"So, Mr. Strider and Mr. Bascoh," Michael says, "Do you now get the basic concept of the Afterlife?"

"I guess so," you answer.

"Yeah," Rufioh answers as well.

"Well, good," Michael says, "If you ever need anything, I'll be around talking to the rest of your classmates."

"OK, then," you say, "I guess I gotta run off too. It's been nice meeting you, Michael."

"It  _has_ been nice meeting you too and Mr. Bascoh as well," Michael says. "Goodbye, Dirk."

"Yeah. Bye Dirk," Rufioh says, "It's been nice meeting you too."

"I'll see you both later," you say. As you wave goodbye to Rufioh and Michael, you start to take a walk around the afterlife. You start to think about your friends and the fact that you "left behind" them when you died. You can't stop thinking about Jane, Jake, and Roxy. You can't stop thinking about their safety. You don't even know if they're getting torn up out there or not. A bubble then appears right in front of you and it shows Jake.

"Jake?" you say, "The hell's going on with you?" You see Jake being held up by Damara Antiop, a girl that's usually nice, but unfortunately the Program has completely changed her. And then, the next thing you see is nothing but pure horror: Damara starts to skin Jake's head off.

"No," you say to yourself. And that's the only thing you could say while you see one of your best friends get skinned alive. But the strangest part about this is the fact that you don't see Jake not screaming during his torturous ordeal. Even though the bubble gives out sound, you don't even hear a peep from Jake. It goes like this for at least five minutes or so. Then, Damara ends this suffering by stabbing Jake deep in his torso and twisting her knife in it and that was it. All that's left of Jake's head is nothing but a skull with no eyes. You are left traumatized, scared, and in tears seeing Jake die a most agonizing and torturous death. As you continue crying, a beam of light appears and you notice it. As it quickly fades away, you start to see a person lying there unconsciously. Could it be Jake? You head there to investigate and it is confirmed to be Jake English when you get closer. You start to hold him to see if he could respond. 

"Jake?! You OK?" you say, "Jake? Can you answer me?"

"Ugh..." you hear from Jake as he starts to open his eyes, "D-Dirk? Is that you?"

"Jake!" you say joyfully as you carry him up and hug him as tightly as you could. The next thing you know, Jake starts hugging you too.

"Dirk," Jake whispers to you, "You don't know how much I missed you."

"Heh," you say, "Me too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	9. [ALPHA SESSION] It's Hard to Say Goodbye

**Be Jake English a short while later.**

You are now Jake English. And it has been about an hour since you've arrived in the afterlife. You've been quite busy from the time you died to now. Aside from being how happy you are being reunited with one of your best friends, Dirk Strider, you've befriended many of your deceased classmates. Most of the people you've befriended are friendly and interesting, and all they've been doing before your arrival is socialized and told each other about their various life stories.

However, suddenly in the midst of all this joy, you know start thinking about two girls: Jane Crocker and Roxy Lalonde.

"Dirk," you say.

"Yeah, dude?" Dirk asks, "What is it?"

"Do you feel worried about Jane and Roxy right now?" you ask.

"Of course I'm worried, Jake," Dirk responds, "There's not a doubt in my mind that either one of them, or even both of them, would win."

"Well, yeah. I kinda feel you," you say, "But do you think we want to check on them through this afterlife's bubble thing?"

"Sure, dude." Dirk says. You and Dirk then proceed to step out of the group so that you could watch over Jane and Roxy. After finding a secluded place to watch, an aforementioned bubble appears in front of you and Dirk. Just as you thought, it currently shows you Jane and Roxy running.

"Oh, thank God," Dirk says, "They're still OK."

"I'm glad that I stayed behind so that they could escape," you say. Suddenly, Jane stops running without a reason.

"Why did she stop?" you ask in confusion.

"I dunno," Dirk answers, "Why don't we listen to what Jane and Roxy is saying to each other?"

**Be Jane Crocker.**

You are now Jane Crocker and you don't know what to do right now. You and your best friend, Roxy Lalonde, have been running for over an hour now after another one of your best friends, Jake English, was left behind to die in the hands of Damara Antiop and Calliope, or now Caliborn, Burche. Those two aren't chasing you , but you and Roxy deserve to rest for now.

"Roxy," you say to her, "What do we do now?"

"Die, I guess," Roxy answers you in the form of a murmur, "Unless you’ve got a brilliant plan, or can fly and just haven’t told me."

“The boys are dead,” you say, "They are gone. I will never see either of them again except as disfigured corpses, if at all. And they were killed by Calliope and Damara, the two nicest people in the class. I don’t think I understand why that happened." You then continue talking in a voice that is tranquil and cold.

"Calliope isn’t herself. Neither is Damara. They said Kurloz and Meulin were with them. That’s four of them, only two of us. And Kurloz and Caliborn are both big powerful guys. You might be able to fight one by yourself, Roxy, but definitely not both at once. And I’m worthless in a fight."

"Yeah, I guess you are," Roxy responds quietly. After a few minutes of trying to suggest Roxy on her own skills, you seem rather confident in her. You think she can hold her own in a fight without you, seeing that she could make small traps at her advantage and that she could fire a gun without any problem. Speaking of which, you show the gun that Roxy's gonna use to her.

"You’ll use this, okay?" you say to her.

"Yeah, whatever," Roxy sighs out, "Jane, is this going somewhere? Cuz I don’t really feel like talking right now."

"Mmm-hmm. It is, don’t worry," you say. Seeing that it's almost midnight, you know what you have to do. You take the gun in your hand and aim it directly at your chest.

"Jane, what are you doing?" Roxy asks as she gives out a sudden look of shock.

"Going to see the boys," you answer, "Good luck, Roxy."

"Ja- why are- you can’t just- Jane no!" Roxy pleads, "Please Jane! Please don't leave me alone."

"You won’t be alone, Roxy. We’ll all be watching you and rooting for you," you chuckle, "I’m sure that the boys would want you to win. I know that I do. Fight, Roxy. Win." And that's your final words you say to Roxy. As you wave goodbye to her, you pull the trigger of the gun and- **  
**

**BAM!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	10. [ALPHA SESSION] I Missed You (Mini-Chapter)

**Be Dirk Strider.**

You are now Dirk Strider again, and you can't believe it. You can't believe the fact that you saw one of your best friends kill herself. All you see of Jane now through the bubble is as a lifeless corpse who left a big smile on her face. What's even worse is that Roxy is now left traumatized and now she's the only one left alive. You and Jake are left speechless and confused.

"I don't believe this," you say, "Why would Jane do this?"

"I agree, Dirk," Jake says, "Why _would_ she do something like this?" Sure, you heard her  _say_  that she can't fight and she doesn't have any useful skills to survive. But that doesn't seem like a good excuse to just give up on yourself, especially when you are put in a life-or-death situation like the Program.

As you and Jake are recovering from the shock, a beam of light appears just a few feet away from both of you, signifying the arrival of another dead soul here in the afterlife. And it's in no doubt that it could be Jane that's arriving from it.

"Is that her?" Jake asks you, "Could that be Jane?"

"I can't be sure," you answer, "This light is too bright for us to see." As the light slowly fades away, you and Jake are able to clearly see what has come from the beam of light. It turns out to be a person lying unconscious, and you and Jake head there to investigate. Getting closer, the person  _does_ turn out to be Jane!

"Oh, my God. It's Jane!" you exclaim.

"Is she OK?" Jake questions you.

"Shit, I don't know," you answer. You start to tap Jane's face as an attempt to wake her up while saying, "Jane, are you OK?"

"Mmmh..." you hear. You see Jane start to open her eyes and speak to you as she awakens.

"D-Dirk?" Jane whispers, "Is that you?" You start to hug and embrace Jane as much as you can, and Jake joins in on it as well.

"Jane, I missed you," you say as your eyes start crying.

" _We_ missed you, Jane," Jake adds on.

"No boys," Jane says, "I missed the both of you even more than you missed me. I'm just glad that I'm with you both again."

"Us too, Jane," you and Jake say in unison, "Us too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	11. [ALPHA SESSION] It All Ends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the slow update. I've been busy with school and life lately. So the writing here is not as tight as the previous chapters...

**Be Jane Crocker.**

You are now Jane again. It's been nearly 12 hours since you've arrived here in the afterlife, and since then, it's been quite hectic. Aside from Dirk and Jake explaining the basic concept of the afterlife to you, you've met and befriended most of your deceased classmates; some of which have actually interesting back stories. For example, Leon Yaldaboath, your school's star baseball player, actually wanted to pursue a singing career. It seems rather odd for him to choose a music career over baseball, especially since Leon's father played in the MLB in the United States and he expects his son to follow in his footsteps. But then again, you heard him sing once and he sings good, so maybe a singing career would've also worked with him.

Another example is that when Aranea arrived here after Meenah betrayed her, Samuel Typheus and Lillith Arima confronted her since Aranea and Meenah  **killed** them. Aranea pleaded and kept apologizing to for killing them, with her even crying and everything. Sam and Lily eventually showed mercy on her and accepted her apology. But then, Aranea said to them that when and if Meenah gets killed off and arrives here, they would need her help in making Meenah pay for killing her _and_ them. They both accepted her ultimatum with vengeful looks on their faces.

And slightly similar incidents happened when Damara and Calliope arrived here; Damara received a well-deserved shunning from Rufioh, Horuss and anyone else that was killed by her, no matter how much she apologized to them. But things were quite the opposite with Calliope. After your classmates learned about her split personality as Caliborn, everyone,  _including_  her own victims, decided to forgive her and accept her for who she was.

However, the major thing overshadowing the events that happened earlier is that everyone's watching the last minutes of the Program. It's in it's final half hour, and all of your deceased classmates have gathered around a big bubble displaying what's going on like a TV. It almost makes it feel like you're all Americans watching the Super Bowl. The final two people left in the Program are Roxy and Meenah, and of course you're rooting for Roxy. Hell, everybody else in your class is rooting for her as well because Meenah killed off basically one-third of your classmates. You see Meenah find Roxy hiding in a shed. She starts talking to Roxy telling her to come out so that she could finish her.

"Come on Rox," Meenah says, "Don't you wanna see your friends again, Dirk and Jake?" Hearing Meenah say their names, you look at Dirk and Jake in concern as she continues.

"I'd feel guilty if I were you, them giving their lives protecting you girls. Either one of them coulda won it easy. But nope, they lost and now there's only you. You should really go apologize to them. The little Crocker princess had the right idea. Sent herself straight to them. She may have been a coward but she realized when it's over."

"What?!" you yell out, "How dare she calls me that! I am not a coward!" You then see Roxy crawl out of the shed.

"Janey was not a coward," Roxy says, "She may have left me, but she died with a smile on her face. She wasn't gonna let a fuck like you hear her scream or beg." You are left touched by her words and smiling. 

"Yeah, you go girl!" one classmate says, which cause most of your classmates to start cheering.

"Which is more than I could say for Aranea. We had to be more than a mile away, but we could hear her so clearly." You then look at Aranea, crossing her arms and giving out a "damn right" look on her face. Looking back at the bubble, Meenah already looks pissed on what Roxy said to her. With tears rushing down her face, Meenah angrily charges at Roxy. But then, she pulls out the pistol you gave her and she shoots Meenah in cold blood. It was all over. Roxy Lalonde has won the Program. The very second that Meenah got shot, all of your classmates went crazy. The atmosphere was electric. Every single one of your classmates were cheering, hugging each other, chanting out Roxy's name; They were doing anything to celebrate Roxy's victory.

"Well Jane," Jake says to you as he pats you on the back, "It's over. Roxy won."

"I know," you say, "She won this game for me, you, Dirk; All of us. And I'm proud of her."

"We're  _all_ proud of her, Jane" Dirk says. "God bless her for this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.  
> Also, this will be the last chapter for the Alpha Session. Next time, I'm going back to the Beta Session and there's gonna be a few surprises in store for you in these next few chapters. ;)


	12. Prelude To The Merging Of Sessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As of this chapter, revolutionaryneon will no longer be writing for this story.

**Be someone else in the present day.**

You are now Cody Nak again. It's only been at least 12 hours or so. You've been having some fun since you've arrived here in the afterlife. You've made some new friends with some of your deceased classmates, you've been reunited with your girlfriend Casey, and all of you told each other about their life stories. It doesn't seem like much, but it's the only "entertaining" thing you could do here.

But now, things are about to get more interesting.

Right now, you and your classmates are going to meet the students from the very last session of the Program. It seems rather exciting to meet some people from a past Program; Plus, it's getting quite boring with only nine of you here and there is nothing of interest happening the current session of the Program (as of now, at least.) Everyone here in your group are quite excited and eager to meet these other kids, seeing as meeting and befriending new people is not a foreign concept here in the afterlife.

"Man, how much longer are we gonna wait?" Stephen asks.

"I don't know," you respond, "But when you think on how huge the afterlife is, I'm not surprised on how long these kids are taking to find us. Even with Michael leading their way. What could we do now while we wait?"

"Maybe we could see what the hell's going on with our class right now," Sollux chimes in. The rest of your group agree on his proposal. And after less than a minute, a bubble materializes right in front of all of you. The first thing that the bubble shows is Rose Lalonde, Female Student Number 10, walking alone. You really don't like Rose that much, even though she's the best friend of Casey. It's really because you're "afraid" of her. One day at school, you were cornered by Rose saying to you that "no one will find your corpse if you ever did anything to hurt Casey." It's total bullshit, of course, because you're too nice of a guy to try to hurt anyone, even your own girlfriend.

You then see Rose look at some sort of a GPS device she has in her hand. Presumably, that's her assigned "weapon." When she looks up, Rose notices a familiar foe nearby: Ronald Impe, Male Student Number 12. You and Ronald completely hate each other. Sure, everyone else in your class doesn't like Ronald, but you and him are just straight up archenemies. It's been like that for years and years now. When his face showed up on the bubble, not only you, but also Casey, gave a glaring look at him. Why Casey? Well, apparently, Ronald tried to _rape_  Casey during the early parts of the Program, and now you got a bigger excuse to hate him even more.

Rose then charges at Ronald and tackles him to the ground. She then punches Ronald in the face and takes away the gun from him. Everyone watching this with you are now riled up and rooting for Rose! Using his gun, Rose aims it right on Ronald's forehead and starts interrogating him, stating all of his faults so far in the Program; From attempting to rape Casey, attempting to kill John Egbert (who is one of Rose's friends) etc. Seeing Ronald's face, he's clearly crying in the utmost fear. He's begging. Begging to be let go and apologizing for what he's done. 

“P-please don’t kill me, Lalonde," you hear Ronald beg to Rose, "You ain't a murderer, you're…you ain't. I fucked up, I know, but I was scared, I knew I didn’t have a chance of winning. I just…I don’t know why. I’m pathetic, you’re right, but that doesn't mean I want to die. Don’t be the one to kill me, Lalonde, I’m begging ya. You don’t have to, just take my gun and let me go. Let someone else do it, you don’t need my blood on your hands. Save the ammo, you’ll need it. Just don’t kill me. Please, I’ll do anything.”

As weird as it sounds, Ronald here is sounding honest with what he's saying.

Yes, really. Ronald Impe, who Rose describes as "a pathetic little ball of hate whose utter loathsomeness is only exceeded by his astounding incompetence" and is known for his thievery and compulsive lying, is being completely honest and sincere with his words right now. Aside from his heinous actions Ronald committed before and during the Program and your rivalry with him, you kinda feel sorry for that poor bastard now. Ronald did fuck up and it was intentional, yes. But he only did this out of some desperation, and that could make someone do the most unlikely things. Rose then responds to his pleas.

“You are right,” she says slowly. “I have no need to kill you. You'll be dead in short order, anyways.”

“Y-yeah! C'mon, Lalonde, I’d even off myself," Ronald begs, "Just don’t kill-” Ronald stops in mid-sentence when suddenly Rose fires the gun. But she doesn't stop there. Rose keeps firing the gun at his face while she keeps yelling "Shut up!" until she runs out of ammo. Half the people in your group give out a "Oh, shit!" in response. Ronald Impe is now dead, and his corpse is left with an unrecognizable mess that was his face. There's no doubt that he'll be arriving here in moments. And when he does, you'll try to make amends with Ronald. You then decide to step out of your group and start looking for him.

"Hey, Cody. Where you going?" Stephen asks.

"Imma go find Ronald," you answer.

"Why?" Stephen asks again. You don't want anyone in your group knowing that you're gonna make peace with a guy like Ronald; They'll think you're crazy.

"I'm gonna get back at him up for what he's done," you say. Everyone buys your lie and your search begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	13. What Happens At School, Stays At School (Part 1)

****

**Be Ronald Impe.**

You are now Ronald Impe. You've now suddenly woken up screaming from some sort of nightmare. You can't remember that much of it other than being shot repeatedly in the face by some unknown assailant. But that's all you can remember; Everything preceding that event is all fuzzy and disoriented as how you're feeling waking up.

You get up and look around in whatever the hell you are. This place that you've woken up at turns out to be your school. You immediately run inside the school and upon entering the building, you see no one inside. "Is it already class time?" you think to yourself. Despite how somewhat unusual this is, you stealthily head to your home room hoping not to get caught by a teacher and report you for truancy again. You then hear someone's voice coming down from the hall.

"Hello?" the voice calls out, "Is anyone here?" You then run to the boy's bathroom right near you and hide in one of the stalls.

After a few minutes, you presume that the coast is clear and you head out of the stall. You head to the sink to wash your face, but something surprising catches your attention when you see your reflection in the mirror. In your reflection, your eyes are completely white as if you're a ghost. Your face feels cold as you touch it. 

"No," you say in denial, "No! This can't be happening!" You try to remember the last thing that happened before now. At first you only remember being shot at in the face. But now, it all comes together: It turns out that a certain Rose Lalonde held you down at gunpoint demanding some sort of a plea from you, then she began shooting at your face. When you start remembering this event, your face starts to dramatically change. Your face turns into an unrecognizable mess while various bullet holes Rose made smoke with gunpowder burn. Only your right eye, glimmering with tears and frozen in terror and confusion, remains relatively unscathed.

You scream in terror from this shocking revelation.

**Ronald: Be someone else less terrified.**

You are now Isabel Echidna.

You're apparently at your school's home room, lying face-down and knocked out on your desk. You have a brain-splitting headache once you wake up. How you got here is rather off putting because you don't know how you even got here and you also can't remember that much of what happened beforehand.

You exit home room and strangely, the hallways are eerily quiet and empty.

"Hello?" you call out, "Is anyone here?" You hear footsteps coming from down the hall and run there to investigate. Suddenly, you wind yourself bumping into someone.

Turns out the person you bumped into was Male Student Number 1 Cody Nak. You really don't hate the guy, but you're not friends him because you really didn't know him well enough like everyone else in the rest of your class.

"Oh, sorry Isabel," Cody says as he gets up, "I didn't see you there."

"It's OK," you reply as Cody helps you up, "It's partially my _own_ fault, though. I'm a fast runner. I can't help it!"

"Well that's why you're on the Track & Field team, ain't it?" Cody declares.

"That's true," you reply. You then give a glace at Cody because his eyes are strangely all-white. It's weird, but you don't want to be rude and quickly look away, keeping that weirded out look on your face.

"Something wrong?" Cody asks when he notices the look on your face

"Nothing" you say, "So Cody, what's going on here? Why is the school somehow empty?"

"Oh, um..." Cody responds, "It's kinda hard to explain, Isabel. How did you even get here?"

"Well, I woke up sleeping on my desk in homeroom and oddly enough, it was empty like the rest of the school." you answer.

"OK, then," Cody says, "Now, what was the last thing you could remember beforehand?" Taking his question into consideration, you try to remember what happened before you woke up here.

"Well, it looks like I was running on a meadow," you describe as Cody listens, "Something, or someone, was speeding towards me as it was coming out of the nearby forest. I was scared as I was running away. But then I tripped and-" You suddenly stop when the memories all come together. What actually happened was that Gamzee Makara, was chasing you down the forest and he caught you and he proceeded to beat you to death with his weapon.

"No. No no no no no no no no no," you repeatedly say as you break down to the floor which transitions to crying. It's hard to realize that you have died. The fact that anyone you loved and that have loved you like friends or family members will never see you again.

"Isabel!" Cody exclaims, "Isabel, calm down! Look, I know it's hard to accept, but I'm sorry. But you need to calm down!" It's takes a while, but you're finally able to stop crying.

"Cody. I'm sorry," you say as you wipe your tears, "I didn't mean to break down like that."

"No, it's OK," Cody says, "I understand and feel you. I was exactly like you right now when _I_ died and arrived here." His talking is then cut off by a loud noise nearby.

"What the hell?" Cody yells out.

"That sound's like a person screaming," you say.

"You're right," Cody answers, "Someone else is here, and we gotta check it out. Come on, Isabel." You get off the ground and follow Cody as he runs down the hall. The both of you run upstairs to the second floor of the school which you to a boy's bathroom.

"OK, this is where I think that scream came from," Cody says, "Now Isabel, you wait outside while I check this out, OK?"

"OK," you answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	14. What Happens At School, Stays At School (Part 2)

**Cody: Enter the bathroom.**

You slowly open the bathroom door and suddenly hear running footsteps inside. "He's here," you think to yourself. The "he" in question is referring to Ronald Impe. Walking inside the bathroom, it's looks empty as you'd expect. But it's pretty clear that Ronald is hiding in one of the stalls and did not just disappear into thin air.

There are only three stalls in this bathroom, and the walls of each stall were built in the floor, even for the stall doors. So peering under the opening of the stalls is already ruled out. You walk to the nearest stall and bang the door open finding no one in it. You head to the second stall and find nothing there too. And now there the third and final stall. You try to open the door, but it's locked. You're thinking of giving up and leaving, but you have an idea: You plan on scaling the wall of the stall to get inside. However, you're not as tall as the average kid in your class, so you can't easily reach the top of the wall. You get yourself onto the sinks and jump to reach the top. It's a rough landing when you hit the wall, but you peer up and see Ronald trying to escape by climbing to the adjacent stall.

"Hey, you!" you yell out, "Ronald, come back here!" Ronald has already climbed over to the other stall by the time you get down and starts darting out of the bathroom. You seemed confused at first, but you have no more time to think about it because you could possibly lose him. You head out to the hall and see Ronald  _and_ Isabel running down to your left. You quickly remember that everyone else still hates Ronald except you. Which was why you were finding him in the first place; so that you can make peace with him. You immediately give chase to them, running around in various places of the school until you all end up at the school's swimming pool outside.

You stop to catch your breath, but then you suddenly catch Ronald and Isabel climbing up the diving boards. You run towards them, climb up the ladder and look up to see Isabel cornering Ronald on the diving board.

"I got you now," Isabel says, "This is for all of the shit you did to us." You then see Isabel grab Ronald on his vest and hold him near the edge of the diving board.

"No wait, Isabel," Ronald begs as you hear him start crying, "Don't do this, please. I don't even know how to swim. Why are you even doing this to me?"

"Oh, you should know why. You should know that you tried to  _rape_ one of our female classmates. A certain Casey Salamancer, was it?"

"N-no. No no. That's bullshit! I would never do something like that!"

"STOP LYING! I know you did this because I saw you there! I was seeing it behind the trees, Casey was crying, you pig! You held her at gunpoint, you sick motherfucker!"

"No stop! Please, Isabel. This ain't like you at all."

"He's right, you know," you interject as you finish climbing up the ladder. 

"Stay out of this, Cody," Isabel says, "I know what I'm doing."

"Are you even sure about it?" you ask her, "Look, Isabel. I know how badly you want to get back at Ronald for what he did. But is violence gonna solve this? What did he ever do to you personally?"

"Well..." Isabel says, "Well he's a dirty thief and would-be rapist pig that needs to be punished for what he's done!"

"But is that it? Would that be enough to satisfy you?" Isabel then gives a look of awkwardness, seemingly evaluating herself and thinking about what she's doing, "And it won't matter if he gets killed or not. We're all dead in the afterlife, for fuck's sake!"

"He does make a good point," Ronald chimes in as he awkwardly chuckles.

"I know," you respond, "But look. All I'm trying to say is that Ronald is still a human being like you and me. We all make mistakes, some bigger than others. And we all deserve a second chance. So please, Isabel. Give him another chance. Another chance to redeem himself."

After nearly a minute, Isabel takes your monologue to heart and pulls Ronald out of the edge. You all individually climb down the diving board and Isabel starts hugging Ronald. 

"No hard feelings, right?" Isabel asks. 

"Yeah, I forgive you, Isabel," Ronald answers. You can't help but give out a smile in this rather touching moment. And you have one hell of a story to tell the others when you get back. Speaking of which...

"Hey guys," you say to them, "I hate to break up your little moment between the both of you, but we gotta go. The other guys in our class are waiting for us."

"OK, then," Isabel says, "Let's go!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you ever have anything you want to add or suggest, please feel free to do so! I appreciate all feedback, and I love CONSTRUCTIVE critisism. Message me on this blog (battlestuck-afterlife.tumblr.com) and leave your suggestions in the comments below.


	15. ((Not A Chapter. Just Some News.))

Hey guys.

I have some exciting news for you today.

I've decided to work on starting a new Homestuck fanfic. It'll be a high school AU. Now I know that the "High School AU" has been used in multiple fanfictions from every fandom ever. But I decided to take a stab at it. More details will be explained later, but here's what I can only tell you"

  * The story will be called "Skaia High School." (skaia-high-school-blog.tumblr.com)
  * It's gonna be loosely based off of the "Battlestuck" AU. By that, I mean that I'll use characters and elements from "Battlestuck" (and to an extent from my own fanfic for Battlestuck: Afterlife.)
  * That being said, some events from "Afterlife" will be paralleled in "Skaia High School."
  * The story may contain some OCs, but I'm still on the fence in deciding so.
  * I may want/need an artist to contribute to this AU. If so, message me on my main blog (p1noyotaku.tumblr.com) if you want to.



That being said, expect my new story to be due out in mid-September.

Till then.

_-vsimon_115._


	16. Meanwhile...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BAAAAAAAACK!!!

** **

**Be Kanaya Maryam.**

You are now Kanaya, and you have one question you want to ask yourself right now. Why?

Why did this happen to you?

Vriska Serket had just swindled your life away. She deceived you with her faked sob story act when you were this close in even trying to kill her. Unfortunately, your own morality got in the way, and you had your guard down. You learned the hard way that Vriska tricked you, and it's too late to fix that now. You died, and you swear that Vriska will pay when she eventually gets killed off.

You don't know where you are. Yes, you are in the afterlife since you died, but where in the afterlife you're at is unknown. You just spent the last five minutes sitting alone in these woods. The exact place in said woods where you were slain; Maybe this is how your memories are being projected here in the afterlife. You decide to get up and look for something, or someone. Maybe your fellow deceased classmates that had also ended up here as well.

As you enter a small meadow, you immediately find an individual in the distance laying near a tree. The person looks big; Maybe it could be Olga Grey or Equius Zahhak, the only two students in your class that's as big as a bodybuilder. You get closer to the individual and turns out that it's, in fact, Equius.

And he's... Crying?

"Equius?" you ask, "Are you OK? It's me, Kanaya."

He gets your attention. "Oh, hello Kanaya."

"Is everything alright, Equius? Why are you crying?"

"I am not crying, Kanaya. I'm fine."

"No you're not! Tell me what happened."

Equius is hesitant to tell for a few minutes, but he end ups crying even more. You try to comfort him as a way of calming him down. It seems to work, as Equius slowly stops crying.

"That better?" you ask.

"Y-Yes," Equius answers, "Thank you, Kanaya."

"You're welcome. Now, are you willing to tell me what happened?"

"It's Nepeta. I'm worried about her."

"Oh. Well, what happened?"

"I was only trying to protect her. She won't make it far in the Program without me. The game's already broker her sanity. And with my death, she's probably putting herself in more danger with her instant loss of her sanity." He begins to get teary-eyed again.

"Equius... I'm so sorry." You hug him again, and Equius hugs back. A little too tightly, but what can you expect from a strong person like him. “It’s gonna be OK, Equius. I don't know how I can say this without sounding morbid. But I hope someone, no matter who it is, could just finish her with mercy. It's the least someone could do considering Nepeta's current mental state."

"You're right, Kanaya. I just hope that she forgives me when she comes here."

"She will, Equius. It'll all be over for her soon. Just hope that Nepeta will be the same person as she was before the Program."

Your coversation with Equius is cut short when you hear a suspicious noise from the distance.

"Equius, did you hear that?" you ask.

“What? What is it?” Equius asks. You and Equius quiet yourselves to hear what it was. It starts to sound more and more like footsteps.

“Someone’s coming,” you say. You slowly peer up over the bushes to see who it is. It's hard to see at first, but it turns out it's only three people. As thet get closer, it's revealed to be other people from your class

“Equius, get up,” you say, “It’s only a few students from our class. They don't look not hostile.” You and Equius show yourselves over the bushes to gain their attention.

“Hey, look! There’s more people from our class.” One of them approaches you and Equius and introduces themselves as Cody Nak. He was the first kid in your class that was slain in the Program.

"You're Kanaya Maryam, right?" Cody asks.

"Yes," you answer, "I also have Equius Zahhak with me. Don't worry, he's not hostile."

"Guys, come here!" Cody calls out. The othr two kids come here and you're surprised to see Ronald Impe with them.

"What is  _he_ doing here?" you inquire.

"Oh, Ronald? Don't worry about him," Cody answers, "Ronald's changed and he's willing to apologize to everyone in our class. Isn't that right?"

"Yes," Ronald says as he starts to get on his knees right in front of you.

"What are you doing?" you ask confusedly.

"I'm really sorry for being an asshole all these years," Ronald says.

"Um, you never really did anything objectionable to me, but I still forgive you." You're just going to take Ronald's word for it and hug him.

"OK, then. I think we gotta go meet the others," Cody says.

"From the rest of our class?" you ask.

"Yes, ma'am," Cody answers, "And the kids from the last Program, too aparantly. So do and Equius want to go?"

"Sure," you answer, "What about you, Equius?"

"Honestly, I was feeling lonely before I was found by Kanaya. We'll go with you," Equius says.

"Alright then." Cody says. "Let's go, guys. They're seriously waiting for us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the unannounced six-month hiatus, guys. Next time here, we're gonna go see what's going on with Eridan and Terezi.


End file.
